Training Week Review

The week of the wake up calls.

You already know about my long run (and it's awesomeness!) and the only other run of note is my tempo run last Wednesday. 4 miles at 8:00-8:10 pace.

I was dreading this workout. SO  HARD. Particularly since the same exact run (1 mile less) the previous week just about killed me. So, as The KoB stretched before the run, I tried to come up with some brilliant excuse that would get me out of the workout and instead just let me jog around for fun.

The KoB, unfortunately, was having none of my pansy ass-ness.

Okay, okay. I'll do the thing.

I did bargain for the workout, though. I decided that since I sooooo didn't want to do it, I would give myself a little win, by doing it on the easy park loop instead of on the roads.

I KNOW. I just did a whole blog post last week about how I'm all HARD now and I'm going to keep my tempo runs honest by doing them on the road. Except last week... I was just a soft, weak, broken down Amy.

So, we ran over to the park, we did them (overall a TAD slow, but not too bad). And, afterwards, I dramatically collapsed in a heap on the grass. As sad and slow as it sounds, running 4 miles at an 8:12 pace felt like a huge fucking victory.

I also got an email with the following words of encouragement from Coach last week:

And right now, as you talked about in your blog, I think your brain needs a small ass kicking. You already know it, but running and racing is so hugely mental. Obvi, you can't make your brain be all sunshine and rainbows about running if you're in a blah place with it, but it is really possible to have a better run by thinking positively and pretending that you're looking forward to a hard workout even if you're not. I know that sounds ridic, but it works. Positive mantras often strike me as a shitwad load of tofu and sprouts, but when I've told my brain to STFU and think positive things (even if in the back of my brain there's a chorus of "Ha ha, you old hag! YOU SUCK!), the run is nearly always better.

The Too Long; Didn't Read version of her email:

I have been a little bitch. 

A whiny, bratty, pansy bitch.

And, of course she's right.  I have been so focused on how HARD everything feels and how SHITTY my runs are. I knew it, but it was kind of a wake up call to have someone else tell me to get a grip on my attitude. So, while it's not going to be puppies and ice cream over here non-stop. I am going to make a conscious effort to stop being so goddamn negative.

You can leave your thank yous to Coach in the comments.

Week 9 Training

I finally feel like I can say I'm officially "training" and not just "trying to get my bearings." In the grand scheme of things... it honestly didn't take that long. And now looking back at all my bitching and moaning and navel gazing, I kinda just wanna be like... Ummm... overreact, much?

 Make room for the pity party!

So, now the pity party is officially over. (For today, at least). And I'm finally feeling inspired. To be completely honest, I'm more nervous about the Bitches Annual Relay coming up in a month, than I am about the 10 miler. We have changed things up this year. Normally, I run the trail leg. Which is like 8 miles of run hard, while trying not to trip, but admittedly, no one is going to see if you powerhike up this steep hill, or if you end up powerhiking up the steps, because YOUR LEGS ARE JELLO at that point.

This year, I'm running the first leg which is like 8-9 miles of the 11.2 loop. So, basically... you have to run hard the whole time, because it's mostly roads. Fuuuuuuck. This wouldn't be too big of a deal, because ya know.. it's a relay. it's supposed to be fun. But, I've been very vocal about wanting to go sub 4:00 this year. Melissa ran the leg at an 8:29 pace last year!!!!!!!! Which is just like.... WHOA. Seriously. In order for us to go Sub 4:00, as a team, we need to shave less than 3 minutes off our times from last year. So, yeah, I need to be at LEAST as fast as Melissa was last year. Hopefully a little faster. I AM GOING TO DIE.

In other news... it looks like I will end 2014 without a marathon finish.

It's an alternate world called...

YOU DONT HAVE TO RUN ALL

THE FUCKING MILES ALL THE TIME.

And, I'm fine with that. I am kind of sick of the marathon training for a specific time. I've already decided that next year is going to be the year of the marathon and I might even get back onto the ultra horse. I miss running races for "fun." Not to say that I don't want to do well at them, I do... and probably next fall, I'll train for a "fast" marathon. But for now... I am enjoying being able to look at a calendar of races and be like... I can run that race, and I can run that race, and hell.. I can run that race! Instead of being like... Okay... PICK ONE race that will define your whole season. Ugh. 

Well, that was a tangent... ANYWAY... back to the week.

I'm still only running 8-10 miles as my long runs, but I finally pushed over the 35 miles a week threshold. So, that feels good. I also did a tempo run of 3 miles averaging about 8:10 pace. One thing I thought of while pushing through that workout, was how I need to start doing my tempo runs on the roads... instead of on the track or on the flat 1 mile loop at Centennial Park. Sure, it's easy to track my times there, and I typically don't have to stop for intersections, cars, etc... BUT, it's TOO flat. Harden up!

I actually did a workout, y'all!

Last week, I got my first real workout assignment from Coach:

4x800s at 8:00 pace with 400 recovery jogs.

This was referred to as a "cobweb shaker" and I was instructed not to freak out if these felt particularly awful.

I enlisted The KoB to run this workout with me. We have been rather lazy lately with our evening runs.

 Me on Wednesday nights for the past couple of months.

We ran straight over to the track and it was only as we were finishing up our warm up that I realized... AWWWWW Fuck! 800s are my least favorite workout distance. Blarg.

I found myself constantly checking in with myself during these intervals. 

How do my legs feel? They feel okay. Huh. Weird.

How does my chest feel? It feels okay. Huh. Weird.

How do I feel generally? Pretty dang good. Huh. Weird.

I fully expected to be huffing and puffing and dying my way through all but the first one. But, I was pleasantly surprised that I felt pretty dang good until the last 100 meters of the last one.

This is pretty much what they looked like.

I've already downgraded my personal expectations for The 10 miler. But, with 9 weeks to go, I am feeling pretty good that I will at least be able to PR there. My current PR is 1:19 which is just under 8:00 pace. Let's do this!

My Expectations

So, here we are. It's August and I am officially 13 weeks away from my goal race: The Team Nashville 10 Miler. Because I am a coach's nightmare dream, I pretty much always fire off an email to Coach with all my hopes, dreams, desires, and expectations for my training on day zero.

 How I feel after carefully drafting that email.

And then Coach responds with a... "back off, bitch." Actually, she usually says something like.. "oh, that's cute. You think you know how to train yourself." BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

Not so fast, Amy.

Anyway, there are a few things that I think will be core components of my training:

HILLS, HILLS, HILLS.

Course Elevation Map.

There are 3 pretty decent hills in this race. And the one there around mile 9.5 feels like Mt. Everest. So, I'm hoping to do a lot of training on the actual race course and I hope to try to incorporate running hills towards the end of a long run. Just to simulate the feeling of racing for 9.5 miles and then hitting a terrible hill when you're legs are already done-zo.

 Speed

I know it's not going to come for awhile. But I am really looking forward to seeing what types of "sharpening" workouts I do in late September/October. I've really only done Marathon and Half Marathon training, so, I'm curious what types of workouts a shorter race will bring.

Cross-training.

I say this in every pre-training email to Coach: I'm going to do yoga 2-3 times a week and try to get into a strength training regime!!!! Yay!!!

And then I'll do yoga like 3 times and that's it.

I've got all kinds of excuses for not cross-training. But, the bottom line is... I think for a shorter/faster race like this... a little core work and some muscle toning/strengthening could REALLY help. So, I am legitimately going to try to do some push-ups and some yoga fairly consistently during these weeks. AT LEAST twice a week. HOLD ME TO IT, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!

I've only been running about 20-25 miles a week lately. So... while all these other components are dancing around in my head, the reality of the situation TODAY is that I.... uhhh... need to get my mileage up a bit. So, most of August will be focused on that.